Contact centers are often configured to receive inbound calls for various applications. Enterprises may advertise toll free numbers (so-called ‘800’ numbers) for various purposes, such as for customer service, ordering, returns, handling inquiries, etc. To maximize the utilization of agents, inbound callers may be placed in a queue or hold state if an agent is not available. This may occur after the call is automatically answered and placed in a queue by an automatic call distributor or by an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system. The caller may first hear a message provided by the IVR, which may inform the caller of the anticipated wait time. For various reasons, callers may terminate the call (i.e., abandon the call) while on hold. This may be due to impatience by the caller waiting on hold, the caller having a change of mind, or a decision by the caller to pursue the call at a later time. Depending on the nature of the call, the contact center operator may find that an abandoned call results in a drop of revenues, and can have significant financial impacts. For example, a toll free number may be advertised by an enterprise for ordering goods. Thus, calls to that number represent potential orders, and any abandoned calls from callers on hold may result in lost revenue.
Contact centers have to balance providing acceptable wait times to their callers while maximizing utilization of their agents. Typically, these goals are at odds. An increase of agent utilization frequently causes longer wait times, and reducing caller wait times decreases agent utilization. For example, some contact centers may use an “80/20” rule where 80% of the callers are connected to an agent within 20 seconds of waiting. Determining an average acceptable holding time for callers is difficult, and regardless of what may deemed to be an “optimal” value, some callers will still abandon their calls while on hold.
Eliminating caller abandonment while the caller is on hold can be accomplished by simply eliminating placing any call on hold. However, this would require an unacceptably large number of agents. Given that a contact center cannot practically eliminate abandoned calls, the contact center may incorporate some mechanism to mitigate the impact of abandoned calls. One mechanism for mitigating the impact is to institute a “callback.” This is a process by which the contact center will initiate an outbound call (called the “callback call” or simply “callback”) to that caller and connect the callback call to an agent. In the past, a relatively simple mechanism could be used for originating callback calls, but such mechanisms were not compatible with various regulations and other compliance requirements that contact centers are now required to follow. Thus, enhanced procedures for originating callback calls to abandoned calls are required.